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This integrative case study is based on real events that the author experienced with her ten-year-old daughter. Although the names have been changed, all of the events (symptoms, diagnoses and treatments, types of healthcare professionals) are recorded exactly as they occurred. Both asthma and pneumonia are common in the United States (and globally). Many of the drugs described in the case study are frequently prescribed for a wide variety of ailments. The four "episodes" that constitute the case cover 1) a study of asthma triggers, incidence and treatment; 2) side effects and possible medication errors associated with steroids; 3) causes, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of community-acquired bacterial pneumonia; and 4) the mechanism of action of two different antibiotics. The "epilogue" explores a few larger themes related to healthcare and public health (e.g., continuity of care, drug resistance, asthma prevention programs). The case study could be used in an undergraduate, upper-level, infectious disease, microbiology, public health or physiology course or in a graduate-level health professions program.

The Animal Research Behind the Top 25 most Prescribed Drugs

In a creative stroke inspired by Hollywood wizardry, scientists from Harvard Medical School and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have designed a simple way to observe how bacteria move as they become impervious to drugs. The experiments, described in the Sept. 9 issue of Science, are thought to provide the first large-scale glimpse of the maneuvers of bacteria as they encounter increasingly higher doses of antibiotics and adapt to survive - and thrive - in them.

This dilemma/decision case study is intended to demonstrate how knowledge of signal transduction pathways can be applied to the pharmaceutical industry and within a medical setting. The case scenario revolves around a physician scientist's analysis of a chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) patient's resistance to the cancer drug Gleevec® (imatinib). Students explore the molecular targets of drugs that inhibit cell signaling, while considering the best course of treatment for the medical patient. Written for an undergraduate sophomore level cell biology course, the case is also suitable for general biology, genetics, molecular biology, pharmacology, and cancer biology.

Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune condition in which components of the immune system mistakenly attack the fatty lining around nerves in the brain and spinal cord. The majority of drugs currently used to tackle the symptoms of MS, therefore, focus on preventing this destruction by targeting the immune system. But a team of scientists think they may have found a different approach to treatment: targeting stem cells already present in the patient's nervous system.

Thus began a fateful test of wills. Merrell responded. Dr. Kelsey wanted more. Merrell complained to Dr. Kelsey's bosses, calling her a petty bureaucrat. She persisted. On it went. But by late 1961, the terrible evidence was pouring in. The drug - better known by its generic name, thalidomide - was causing thousands of babies in Europe, Britain, Canada and the Middle East to be born with flipperlike arms and legs and other defects.

SAN ANTONIO -- Scientists at a South Texas research center made a breakthrough discovery by destroying the Ebola virus in animals through a Chinese herb. Texas Biomedical Research Center said a compound derived from the herb called tetrandrine was used to make a drug. He says his team injected mice with the drug.

When scientists first made contact with an isolated village of Yanomami hunter-gatherers in the remote mountains of the Amazon jungle of Venezuela in 2009, they marveled at the chance to study the health of people who had never been exposed to Western medicine or diets. But much to their surprise, these Yanomami's gut bacteria have already evolved a diverse array of antibiotic-resistance genes, according to a new study, even though these mountain people had never ingested antibiotics or animals raised with drugs. The find suggests that microbes have long evolved the capability to fight toxins, including antibiotics, and that preventing drug resistance may be harder than scientists thought.

The researchers, Eicke Latz at the University of Bonn and colleagues, followed up on the parents' hypothesis and found that in mice, cyclodextrin indeed blocked plaque formation, melted away plaques that had already formed in arteries, reduced atherosclerosis-associated inflammation, and revved up cholesterol metabolism-even in rodents fed cholesterol-rich diets. In petri dish-based tests, the researchers found that the drug seemed to have the same effects on human cells and plaques.

Panobinostat is a new type of drug that works by blocking an enzyme responsible for modifying DNA at the epigenetic level. Epigenetics refers to chemical marks on DNA itself or on the protein "spools" called histones that package DNA. These marks influence the activity of genes without changing the underlying sequence, essentially acting as volume knobs for genes. Earlier genomic studies showed that about 80 percent of DIPG tumors carry a mutation that alters a histone protein, resulting in changes to the way DNA is packaged and tagged with those chemical marks. This faulty epigenetic regulation results in activation of growth-promoting genes that should have been turned off, and shutdown of others that should have acted as brakes to cell multiplication. Cancer is the result. Panobinostat appears to work by restoring proper functioning of the cells' chemical tagging system.

This clicker case was designed to teach students about basic enzyme structure, mechanisms of enzyme inhibition, and mechanisms of drug resistance. The story follows Oliver Casey, a patient afflicted with Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML). CML is caused by a chromosomal mutation that affects the tyrosine kinase ABL, an enzyme important in regulating cell growth and proliferation. The chromosomal mutation gives rise to the BCR-ABL fusion gene that produces a constitutively active ABL kinase, which causes the leukemia. In May 2001, the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of a rationally designed tyrosine kinase inhibitor, imatinib (Gleevec®), for the treatment of CML. During that same month, Gleevec made the cover of TIME magazine, described as "new ammunition in the war on cancer." The case is structured for a flipped classroom environment in which students view preparatory videos (including one by the author) on their own before beginning the case. Written for a first-year introductory biology course, the case could also be adapted for AP/Honors high school biology or a cancer biology course.

We are under attack - by germs. Drug-resistant bacteria are invading organisms, and hospitals are their favorite breeding ground. Scientists are studying the genetics of bacteria and trying to find

" An anti-cancer drug reverses memory deficits in an Alzheimer's disease mouse model, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health researchers confirm in the journal Science."

The UK's leading cancer charity yesterday welcomed work by British scientists who created a breed of genetically modified hens that can produce cancer-fighting medicines in their eggs. The research could slash the cost of producing drugs and potentially save the NHS millions of pounds.

A team of Indian biologists has demonstrated that a key component of the water buffalo genome can be manipulated to produce foreign proteins in the buffalo's milk (J. Biotechnol. 2015, DOI:10.1016/j.jbiotec.2015.02.001). The findings suggest the possibility of modifying the genetic material of water buffalo-that is, creating transgenic buffalo-to produce protein drugs, says team member Subeer S. Majumdar, of the National Institute of Immunology, in New Delhi.

This clicker case study follows a dialogue between two college students, Lucy and Dan, as they discover how alternative splicing of mRNA molecules can allow a single gene to code for multiple proteins. Dan is participating in a clinical trial for a drug that may treat his migraines by inhibiting calcitonin gene-related peptide, and Lucy is working in a summer research lab that studies the protein calcitonin. They soon realize that the two proteins are both encoded by the same gene, and through their questioning and dialogue they come to understand the phenomenon of alternative splicing. They also learn about other steps of mRNA processing and about monoclonal antibodies. This case was designed to be taught in a flipped classroom, but could easily be adapted for a more traditional classroom setting if content covered in the pre-class videos is covered during the case study instead. It was designed for an introductory-level molecular biology course, but could be adapted for higher levels by including more information about the physiology and regulatory mechanisms involved.

Some tiny clusters of brain cells grown in a lab dish are making big news at this week's Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego. Known as "minibrains," these rudimentary networks of cells are small enough to fit on the head of a pin, but already are providing researchers with insights into everything from early brain development to Down syndrome, Alzheimer's and Zika.

Department of Defense researchers disclosed Thursday in a report placed online by the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy that a 49-year-old woman who sought medical care at a military-associated clinic in Pennsylvania last month, with what seemed to be a urinary tract infection, was carrying a strain of E. coli resistant to a wide range of drugs. That turned out to be because the organism carried 15 different genes conferring antibiotic resistance, clustered on two "mobile elements" that can move easily among bacteria. One element included the new, dreaded gene mcr-1.

Based on a comprehensive analysis of the scientific evidence, as required by the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act), the FDA has determined that AquAdvantage Salmon meets the statutory requirements for safety and effectiveness under the FD&C Act. The salmon are safe to eat, the introduced DNA is safe for the fish itself, and the salmon meet the sponsor's claim about faster growth. Because the sponsor has met these requirements, the FDA must approve the application. The FDA has also analyzed the potential environmental impact that an approval of the AquAdvantage Salmon application would have on the quality of the human environment in the United States and has issued its final Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact.

For anyone with a deep, enduring faith in the meaning of nature, it may come as something of a shock to learn that the word "natural" means nothing at all-at least when it comes to the business of marketing processed food. Every year, U.S. corporations sell tens of billions of dollars worth of food products labeled as "natural." Yet, to this day, the Food and Drug Administration has never formally defined the term. The word is a kind of orphan child, undefined by government, misused by industry and without a provenance or a use for the average American consumer.